Riding on pillars of fire and smoke, Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket blasted into the sunset over French Guiana on Friday, heading off on its final Geotransfer mission of the year with a pair of particularly heavy satellites for operators Intelsat and B-SAT

Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket returned to its French Guiana Launch Pad for liftoff Friday night with a pair of communications satellites for Luxembourg’s Intelsat and Japanese operator B-SAT, coming back from an aborted ignition earlier this month

Europe’s Ariane 5 workhorse launcher suffered a very rare on-pad abort on Tuesday when aiming for a sunset liftoff from French Guiana with a particularly heavy pair of communications satellites for operators Intelsat and B-SAT

Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket stands ready for a sunset liftoff from French Guiana on its fifth mission of the year, targeting a launch window of 21:51 to 22:24 UTC on Tuesday to send two heavy communications satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit for Luxembourg’s Intelsat and Japan’s B-SAT.

A 55-meter tall Ariane 5 rockets rolls out from its Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch pad at the Guiana Space Center on September 4, 2017 for liftoff with a pair of heavy communications satellites.

An Ariane 5 ECA Rocket is assembled at the Guiana Space Center to receive a payload of two broadcasting and telecommunications satellites for liftoff in September 2017 on the vehicle’s fifth mission of the year.